On The Fly: Happy 90th To Every Sportswriters' Idol

We start off your Friday by wishing a happy 90th birthday to a legend, the idol of every sportswriter of a certain age: Jack Klugman, the brilliant actor best known for playing Oscar Madison.

In Mr. Klugman's honor, I write today's On The Fly with coffee stains on my shirt.

The April pixie dust hasn't worn off yet — the Mets are still playing good baseball. Justin Turner drew a bases loaded walk in a 13-pitch at-bat to force home the tying run in an eventual 3-2 victory and a sweep over the Marlins at Citi Field.

Turner fouled off seven pitchers to drain the life out of closer Heath Bell's arm. The Mets are 11-8, good for third in the NL East and, if not Mr. Klugman's birthday, first in OTF.

The Yankees learned that Michael Pineda, the top young pitching prospect for whom they parted with Jesus Montero, has a torn anterior labrum in his shoulder and is lost for the season. Pitchers have come back from this, but it won't be easy. Seems like these type of acquisitions never work out for the Yankees. Anyone remember Britt Burns?

The Red Sox also got bad injury news. The Boston Globe reports that Carl Crawford has a major elbow injury and could miss three months. The Red Sox were playing Lars Anderson, a first baseman by trade, in left field at Chicago Thursday night.

Jim Calhoun missed Husky Day at the state Capitol for the first time in 26 years, which gave Kevin Ollie a chance to show off his skills as a public speaker. Take our word, he is impressive.

The NFL and its players association are talking about the Pro Bowl. Talking, in fact, about suspending it, according to an AP report. Last January's 59-41 AFC win apparently drove home the point that no one wants to play any defense in this game. Having last watched the Pro Bowl when Norm Snead and BillyKilmer shared quarterbacking duties for the NFC, I say suspend it and see if anyone notices. … The Colts needed a minute to tell the world what it already knew: they took Andrew Luck with the first pick in the draft.

The Caps' winning goal against the Bruins Wednesday night was scored by Joel Ward, and his OT heroics unleashed a torrent of racial epithets on Twitter against Ward, who is black. Once again, modern technology confirms the age-old theory that there are a lot of nuts out there. Ward told USA Today the tweets "were shocking to see, but it didn't ruin my day. There have been a lot of Boston fans who have supported me, which is cool to see." That's called class, ladies and gents.